The meeting was the first between Abbas and a senior Israeli official since Israel pulled out of the peace talks in response to the Hamas-Fatah unity pact. According to Channel 2 News, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was informed in advance about the meeting and was unhappy about it.

On Thursday, Livni had also met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who brought the two sides together for talks last July.

Officials in Washington emphasized the surprise meeting happened because Kerry and Livni both happened to be in London at the same time and that it “provided an opportunity for them to catch up since the pause in the negotiations.”

Despite the talks breaking down, Kerry has always remained optimistic that they will restart. His spokeswoman has denied that Kerry’s efforts to secure a peace treaty had failed, saying instead that the talks are in a “moment of transition”.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)